Literary representations of the Himalayas from imperialist, postcolonial and ecological perspectives

Abstract

This dissertation examines the representational divide between the West and the local population on the Himalayan ecology. Taking into account the ongoing development of the discourse of ‘ecology’, this comparative study will address changes in the representations from imperialist, postcolonial and ecological perspectives.

The Himalayas with their grandeur and abundance, have been fetishised by the West as paradise and site for conquest. The obsession with uninhabited Himalayas due to the growth of consciousness on the ecological well-being of the Earth has gone further to idealising and mythologising the region. Postcolonial imaginations have risen to challenge these representations by reasserting humans’ presence, and thereby their responsibility in the Himalayan ecology. Besides, increasing global connectivity has charted the course of the representations to global level. Far from reaching a balanced and stable state, the representations hinge on the evolving Himalayan ecology, will unavoidably continue to undergo transformation.